1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a positioning mechanism for supporting a patient while lying on an operating table or the like during the performance of surgery or other medical procedures.
2. Background Art
In the performance of orthopedic surgery and related medical procedures, it is often necessary to support a portion of the patient's body including one or more limbs in a particular position during the procedure, nd also to vary the position from time to time. In this regard, there has been a long felt need for apparatus which is capable of suspending a patient extremity, such as an arm or leg, for maintaining the extremity in a particular position in relation to the rest of the patient's body. Heretofore, known techniques include supporting the patient while lying on an operating table by using personnel participating in the procedure to manually support the particular extremity and to change the position of the extremity as desired. It is also known to use virtually any object including pillows or other padded objects on which the patient extremity is supported or biased. Since such objects often obstruct the performance of surgery or other procedures and are not easily moved from one position to another, such techniques have been generally unsatisfactory. Moreover, the use of personnel to support a patient during the performance of surgery or the like, is unsatisfactory in that the person supporting the patient may tire and find it necessary to change position in the midst of a delicate procedure.
Accordingly, it has been considered highly desirable to provide mechanism which may be supported by an operating table or the like and which is adapted to support and position various parts of a patient's body including the limbs during the performance of surgery on a portion of the limb itself or a connecting joint. There has also been a need for mechanism for positioning a patient limb or extremity which may be used to vary the position during surgery or treatment or to impose or change a biasing force on that portion of the patient's body which is undergoing the treatment.
There has also been a need in the art of surgical equipment for an apparatus which may be mounted on an operating table or the like and which is adapted to be moved with the table to any position thereof, which apparatus also includes structure disposed above the support surface of the table, in the sterile area, which can be easily removed from the remaining part of the apparatus for sterilization and which remains sterile during adjustment thereof.
The foregoing needs in the art of apparatus for supporting patients during the performance of surgery and other procedures have been satisfied by the present invention which provides other advantages and superior features that will be recognized by those skilled in the art.